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Pope Francis originally intended this book to appear only after his death, but the needs of our times and the 2025 Jubilee Year of Hope have moved him to make this precious legacy available now. 'Hope' is the first autobiography in history ever to be published by a Pope. Written over six years, this complete autobiography starts in the early years of the twentieth century, with Pope Francis's Italian roots and his ancestors' courageous migration to Latin America, continuing through his childhood, the enthusiasms and preoccupations of his youth, his vocation, adult life, and the whole of his papacy up to the present day.

Human animals are despoiling nature and causing a sixth extinction on Earth. Our natural environment is being compromised, and birds and other animals are disappearing at an alarming rate. Flight from Grace does not so much reveal the extent of the damage as ask and answer the perplexing question: why? This book traces human reverence for birds from the Stone Age and the New Stone Age, through the cultures of Mesopotamia, Egypt, Peru, and Greece and through biblical traditions, up to its vestiges in the present. Richard Pope takes a hard look at Judaeo-Christian and ancient Greek thought to demonstrate how the emergence of anthropocentrism and belittling of nature led to our present-day ecological dilemma. Striking images of cultural artifacts -- many little-known -- together with extensive discussion of art, music, literature, and religion illustrate the paradox in our contemporary relationship to the natural world. Humanity, in moving from its paleolithic origins to modern times, has simultaneously distanced itself from and disenchanted nature. Suggesting that the replacement of an animistic worldview with a mechanistic one has led humans to deny their animality, Flight from Grace calls on readers to appreciate how our past relationship with birds might help transform our current relationship with nature.

Here we present a description of the UKCA StratTrop chemical mechanism, which is used in the UKESM1 Earth system model for CMIP6. The StratTrop chemical mechanism is a merger of previously well-evaluated tropospheric and stratospheric mechanisms, and we provide results from a series of bespoke integrations to assess the overall performance of the model.We find that the StratTrop scheme performs well when compared to a wide array of observations. The analysis we present here focuses on key components of atmospheric composition, namely the performance of the model to simulate ozone in the stratosphere and troposphere and constituents that are important for ozone in these regions. We find that the results obtained for tropospheric ozone and its budget terms from the use of the StratTrop mechanism are sensitive to the host model; simulations with the same chemical mechanism run in an earlier version of the MetUM host model show a range of sensitivity to emissions that the current model does not fall within.Whilst the general model performance is suitable for use in the UKESM1 CMIP6 integrations, we note some shortcomings in the scheme that future targeted studies will address.

The IL-12 family cytokines contribute to immune-mediated inflammation and have an important role in determining T-cell fate. Evidence from preclinical and clinical studies suggests a role of these cytokines in the pathogenesis of rheumatoid arthritis (RA). The authors discuss these data and their potential clinical implications for patients with RA. The IL-12 family members, IL-12, IL-23, IL-27 and IL-35, are heterodimeric cytokines that share subunits and have important roles in autoimmunity. As well as their structural relationship the IL-12 family cytokines share some biological characteristics but have functional differences. These cytokines contribute to immune-mediated inflammation and our improved knowledge of their actions has led to alteration of the T H 1–T H 2 paradigm. In rheumatoid arthritis (RA), leukocyte migration, bone erosions and angiogenesis are modulated by an IL-23–IL-17 cascade, which can be negated in part by IL-12, IL-27 and IL-35 function. However, the IL-12 family members are a relatively new area of research and data have been generated mostly at the preclinical stage. Further studies in patients with RA are, therefore, required to determine whether these cytokines are valid targets for RA therapy.

Tropospheric ozone (O3) is a harmful secondary atmospheric pollutant and an important greenhouse gas. Multiple satellite records have shown conflicting long-term O3 trends across regions of the globe, including Europe. Here, we investigate lower-tropospheric sub-column O3 (LTCO3, surface – 450 hPa) records from three ultraviolet (UV) sounders produced by the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (RAL): the Global Ozone Monitoring Experiment (GOME, 1996–2010), the Scanning Imaging Absorption Spectrometer for Atmospheric Chartography (SCIAMACHY, 2003–2011) and the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI, 2005–2017). GOME and SCIAMACHY detect negative trends of approximately −0.2 DU yr−1, while OMI indicates a negligible trend. The TOMCAT 3-D chemical transport model was used to investigate processes driving simulated trends and to identify possible reasons for satellite trend discrepancies. The simulated LTCO3 trends were negligible (consistent with ozonesonde trends), even when spatiotemporally co-located to the satellite level-2 swath data and convolved by averaging kernels (i.e. a measure of the satellite retrieval vertical sensitivity). Model sensitivity experiments with the emissions or meteorology fixed to 2008 also showed negligible LTCO3 trends between 1996 and 2018, indicating that changes in emissions and meteorology had a limited impact on LTCO3 temporal evolution. Given the substantial decrease in air pollutant emissions, this was unexpected, while year-to-year variability dominated the meteorological influence on LTCO3. Finally, we find a negligible trend in the long-term stratosphere O3 flux into the free troposphere over this period arriving over Europe. Overall, our observational and modelling analysis indicates that European LTCO3 trends have been stable between 1996 and 2018.

Volcanic eruptions can cause significant disruption to society, and numerical models are crucial for forecasting the dispersion of erupted material. Here we assess the skill and limitations of the Met Office's Numerical Atmospheric-dispersion Modelling Environment (NAME) in simulating the dispersion of the sulfur dioxide (SO2) cloud from the 21–22 June 2019 eruption of the Raikoke volcano (48.3∘ N, 153.2∘ E). The eruption emitted around 1.5±0.2 Tg of SO2, which represents the largest volcanic emission of SO2 into the stratosphere since the 2011 Nabro eruption. We simulate the temporal evolution of the volcanic SO2 cloud across the Northern Hemisphere (NH) and compare our model simulations to high-resolution SO2 measurements from the TROPOspheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI) and the Infrared Atmospheric Sounding Interferometer (IASI) satellite SO2 products. We show that NAME accurately simulates the observed location and horizontal extent of the SO2 cloud during the first 2–3 weeks after the eruption but is unable, in its standard configuration, to capture the extent and precise location of the highest magnitude vertical column density (VCD) regions within the observed volcanic cloud. Using the structure–amplitude–location (SAL) score and the fractional skill score (FSS) as metrics for model skill, NAME shows skill in simulating the horizontal extent of the cloud for 12–17 d after the eruption where VCDs of SO2 (in Dobson units, DU) are above 1 DU. For SO2 VCDs above 20 DU, which are predominantly observed as small-scale features within the SO2 cloud, the model shows skill on the order of 2–4 d only. The lower skill for these high-SO2-VCD regions is partly explained by the model-simulated SO2 cloud in NAME being too diffuse compared to TROPOMI retrievals. Reducing the standard horizontal diffusion parameters used in NAME by a factor of 4 results in a slightly increased model skill during the first 5 d of the simulation, but on longer timescales the simulated SO2 cloud remains too diffuse when compared to TROPOMI measurements. The skill of NAME to simulate high SO2 VCDs and the temporal evolution of the NH-mean SO2 mass burden is dominated by the fraction of SO2 mass emitted into the lower stratosphere, which is uncertain for the 2019 Raikoke eruption. When emitting 0.9–1.1 Tg of SO2 into the lower stratosphere (11–18 km) and 0.4–0.7 Tg into the upper troposphere (8–11 km), the NAME simulations show a similar peak in SO2 mass burden to that derived from TROPOMI (1.4–1.6 Tg of SO2) with an average SO2 e-folding time of 14–15 d in the NH. Our work illustrates how the synergy between high-resolution satellite retrievals and dispersion models can identify potential limitations of dispersion models like NAME, which will ultimately help to improve dispersion modelling efforts of volcanic SO2 clouds.

We use a regional chemistry transport model (Weather Research and Forecasting model coupled with chemistry, WRF-Chem) in conjunction with surface observations of tropospheric ozone and Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) satellite retrievals of tropospheric column NO2 to evaluate processes controlling the regional distribution of tropospheric ozone over western Siberia for late spring and summer in 2011. This region hosts a range of anthropogenic and natural ozone precursor sources, and it serves as a gateway for near-surface transport of Eurasian pollution to the Arctic. However, there is a severe lack of in situ observations to constrain tropospheric ozone sources and sinks in the region. We show widespread negative bias in WRF-Chem tropospheric column NO2 when compared to OMI satellite observations from May–August, which is reduced when using ECLIPSE (Evaluating the Climate and Air Quality Impacts of Short-Lived Pollutants) v5a emissions (fractional mean bias (FMB) = -0.82 to -0.73) compared with the EDGAR (Emissions Database for Global Atmospheric Research)-HTAP (Hemispheric Transport of Air Pollution) v2.2 emissions data (FMB = -0.80 to -0.70). Despite the large negative bias, the spatial correlations between model and observed NO2 columns suggest that the spatial pattern of NOx sources in the region is well represented. Scaling transport and energy emissions in the ECLIPSE v5a inventory by a factor of 2 reduces column NO2 bias (FMB = -0.66 to -0.35), but with overestimates in some urban regions and little change to a persistent underestimate in background regions. Based on the scaled ECLIPSE v5a emissions, we assess the influence of the two dominant anthropogenic emission sectors (transport and energy) and vegetation fires on surface NOx and ozone over Siberia and the Russian Arctic. Our results suggest regional ozone is more sensitive to anthropogenic emissions, particularly from the transport sector, and the contribution from fire emissions maximises in June and is largely confined to latitudes south of 60∘ N. Ozone dry deposition fluxes from the model simulations show that the dominant ozone dry deposition sink in the region is to forest vegetation, averaging 8.0 Tg of ozone per month, peaking at 10.3 Tg of ozone deposition during June. The impact of fires on ozone dry deposition within the domain is small compared to anthropogenic emissions and is negligible north of 60∘ N. Overall, our results suggest that surface ozone in the region is controlled by an interplay between seasonality in atmospheric transport patterns, vegetation dry deposition, and a dominance of transport and energy sector emissions.

Carbonyl sulfide (OCS) is consumed by vegetation during photosynthesis in a one-way hydrolysis reaction, making measuring OCS vegetative uptake a means of inferring and quantifying global gross primary production. Recent studies highlight that uncertainties in OCS surface fluxes remain high and OCS datasets with better spatial coverage are required, particularly from satellite. Here OCS profiles are retrieved using measured radiances from the Infrared Atmospheric Sounding Interferometer (IASI) instruments. We estimate total column amounts over oceanic and inland water regions for the example year 2018, using an optimal estimation scheme, using the University of Leicester IASI retrieval scheme (ULIRS) for selected microwindows in the 2000–2100 cm−1 wavenumber range. Information content exceeds one between ±50° latitude and a peak in vertical sensitivity around 6–10 km (500–300 hPa) in the troposphere. Diurnal variations are limited to ±2 %, showing larger total column amounts at the daytime overpass. The IASI OCS observations show a correlation of at least 0.74 at half the ground-based flask measurement sites compared. Results also agree with the University of Leeds TOMCAT 3-D chemical transport model simulations within ±5 % throughout most tropical regions. This study demonstrates the ability of the IASI instrument to detect OCS in the troposphere and observe a reasonable seasonal cycle indicative of being driven by photosynthesis. Further data acquisition is recommended to gain insight into inter-annual variability in OCS. This novel work will also help improve our understanding of the role of vegetation in the carbon cycle, particularly when utilised in inversion methods.

Key Points Macrophages and dendritic cells (DCs) are essential for the pathogenesis of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) Phagocytosis of dying cells is necessary for the resolution of inflammation, and defects in this process can lead to rheumatic disease Macrophage-specific and DC-specific defects in mediators of the extrinsic apoptotic pathway induce altered responses in experimental arthritis, and overexpression and/or deletion of components of the intrinsic apoptotic pathway influence the development of experimental arthritis Global deletion of necroptotic signalling mediators results in a more rapid resolution of experimental arthritis, whereas macrophage-specific deletion of inhibitors of apoptosis exacerbates experimental arthritis Autophagy might have a cell-specific inhibitory and proinflammatory role in RA and experimental arthritis Risk polymorphisms in mediators of the extrinsic apoptotic pathway and autophagy have been identified in patients with RA In this article, Cuda et al . discuss the role of programmed cell death mechanisms in the pathogenesis of rheumatic diseases, and provide an overview of the experimental data showing the function of the apoptotic machinery of phagocytes in the development of tissue inflammation. Rheumatoid arthritis affects nearly 1% of the world's population and is a debilitating autoimmune condition that can result in joint destruction. During the past decade, inflammatory functions have been described for signalling molecules classically involved in apoptotic and non-apoptotic death pathways, including, but not limited to, Toll-like receptor signalling, inflammasome activation, cytokine production, macrophage polarization and antigen citrullination. In light of these remarkable advances in the understanding of inflammatory mechanisms of the death machinery, this Review provides a snapshot of the available evidence implicating death pathways, especially within the phagocyte populations of the innate immune system, in the perpetuation of rheumatoid arthritis and other rheumatic diseases. Elevated levels of signalling mediators of both extrinsic and intrinsic apoptosis, as well as the autophagy, are observed in the joints of patients with rheumatoid arthritis. Furthermore, risk polymorphisms are present in signalling molecules of the extrinsic apoptotic and autophagy death pathways. Although research into the mechanisms underlying these pathways has made considerable progress, this Review highlights areas where further investigation is particularly needed. This exploration is critical, as new discoveries in this field could lead to the development of novel therapies for rheumatoid arthritis and other rheumatic diseases.